CHAPEL HILL - Former UNC system President Bill Friday criticized a college athletics "arms race" Friday, two days after UNC-Chapel Hill announced a $291,000 raise for football coach Butch Davis.

Davis got a one-year contract extension and the raise despite posting a 3-8 record heading into the final game today against Duke. The UNC-CH board of trustees has to approve the raise, which would bring his compensation to an average of more than $2 million a year, including endorsements from the Nike shoe company and bonuses.

In an interview, Friday said the board should correct "excessive imbalances" when it votes. The raise would be "an increase far in excess of that presently provided the president or any chancellor and substantially greater than the yearly compensation of an English professor," he said.

Trustees Chairman Roger Perry said the board is committed to rebuilding the football program and was not motivated by rumors of other schools trying to lure Davis.

"It's lamentable that that's what it takes to compete," Perry said Friday. "Unless we unilaterally disarm our program, we are going to have to stay competitive. ... This is an issue that's much, much bigger than just us."

Trustees Bob Winston and John Ellison agreed, both saying they would vote to approve the raise.

"I believe that if you look at the reputation of the University of North Carolina and where we have focused the vast majority of our time and resources, it is clear that we believe the academic mission is the most important mission of the university, and it will continue to be so," Winston said.

Davis' raise will be a combination of base salary and supplemental salary, meaning some money will come from the athletic department and some will come from the Educational Foundation, the department's fundraising arm.

George Hogan, who in 1947 was hired as the first employee of the Educational Foundation, said Davis has not impressed him.

"I think it's utterly ridiculous," said Hogan, who estimated he has given "a couple hundred thousand" dollars to Carolina athletics over the years. "If he wants to leave, or if he doesn't want to be at Carolina, then let him go."

Hodding Carter III, University Professor of Leadership and Public Policy, also criticized the six-figure raise.

"We just bid against a mythical salary to keep a guy we had just given a very good contract ... a really fine contract to a coach that may prove himself. But I would say that it's a little premature."

Carter is a member of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, which promotes college athletic reform. Friday is its former co-chairman, though he said he was speaking only for himself.

"Big-time football has the potential of, and the record of, doing more to corrupt the mission of higher education," Carter said.

Friday said the raise sends the wrong message about the university's priorities, a problem that began when "commercial television brought its largess into the world of intercollegiate sports."

"This salary action establishes a level of compensation so dramatically out of balance with the compensation of the faculty of the university that I hope and trust the trustees and the [Board of Governors] will meet their obligation to correct the excessive imbalances, which, if not corrected, establish the real priorities of the university," Friday said.

The UNC system Board of Governors approved 15.7 percent raises this fall for UNC-CH Chancellor James Moeser and N.C. State University Chancellor James Oblinger. The $53,035 raises increase their pay to $390,835 and were given, in part, to raise the UNC-CH chancellor's salary to a more competitive level as the search begins for Moeser's replacement.

UNC athletics director Dick Baddour said Davis has buoyed the program despite his losing record, citing five sellouts, strong recruiting and on-the-field improvements. Baddour said he expects the trustees to approve the raise.

The UNC athletics department posted a deficit for the first time in eight years because of the firing of former football coach John Bunting and subsequent hiring of Davis last year.

(Staff writers Anne Blythe and Robbi Pickeral contributed to this report.)